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Thursday, June 30, 2016

Women between the ages of 30 and 55 who attend church weekly are six
times less likely to commit suicide than women who never attend church,
according to a report published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to the report, Catholic women who attend church at least
weekly are 20 times less likely to commit suicide than women who never
attend church, while Protestant women are approximately three times less
likely.The report was based on analysis of the health of nearly 90,000 women who took part in the Nurses’ Health Study.

Upholding a lower court ruling, the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled
that the Law Society of Upper Canada was justified in denying
accreditation to Trinity Western University, an evangelical school whose
students are required to pledge to avoid sexual activity outside of
marriage between a man and a woman.

Comparing the pledge to rules against interracial dating, the court
ruled found the pledge “deeply discriminatory to the LGBTQ community”
and ruled that “public interest in ensuring equal access to the
profession justified a degree of interference with the appellants’
religious freedoms.”“To find that religious freedom was infringed, as the court did, but
then to rule that the infringement is justified despite evidence that
the infringement was not necessary, is very troubling,” said Andre
Schutten, counsel for the Association for Reformed Political Action.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, the
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and blessed the pallia that will be
conferred on metropolitan archbishops by pontifical representatives.As is customary, a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople, led this year by Metropolitan Methodios Tournas of
Boston, attended the Mass in honor of the patrons of Rome.

Blessed the what?

The pallium (derived from the Roman pallium or palla, a woolen cloak, pl.: pallia) is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the Pope, but for many centuries bestowed by him on metropolitans and primates as a symbol of the jurisdiction delegated to them by the Holy See. In that context it has remained connected to the Papacy.
The pallium, in its present Western form, is a narrow band, "three
fingers broad", woven of white lamb's wool from sheep raised by Trappistt monks, with a loop in the centre resting on the shoulders over the chasuble
and two dependent lappets, before and behind; so that when seen from
front or back the ornament resembles the letter Y. It is decorated with
six black crosses, one on each tail and four on the loop, is doubled on
the left shoulder, and sometimes is garnished, back and front, with
three jeweled gold pins. The two latter characteristics seem to be
survivals of the time when the Roman pallium was a simple scarf doubled
and pinned on the left shoulder.

Today we observe the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul. The Norms of the Church say this:

St. Paul and St. Peter, by El Greco

N.17. The faithful who use with devotion an "object of piety" (crucifix,
cross, rosary, scapular or medal) properly blessed by any priest, can
acquire a partial indulgence. But if this "object of piety" is blessed
by the Supreme Pontiff or any bishop, the faithful who use it devoutly
can also acquire a plenary indulgence on the feast of the holy Apostles
Peter and Paul, provided they also make a profession of faith using any
legitimate formula.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Blase Cupich has resigned as Bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago
after the diocese voted yesterday to leave the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops.An emotional Cupich fought back tears late last night as he announced his resignation.Surrounded by altar servers, deacons, and priests dressed as clowns,
Cupich delivered an emotional statement outside Holy Name Cathedral.

Cupich said he accepted the decision of the laity, which voted by 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the USCCB.The emotional Cupich announced he was standing down, before adding:
“I will do everything I can in the future to help this great diocese
succeed. Well, maybe it’s not great, but good. I will do everything I
can in the future to help this good diocese succeed. Actually, come to
think of it, it’s really not that good at all, is it? Ok, let me try
this one more time. I will do everything I can in the future to help
this not that good at all diocese succeed.”“I think the diocese requires fresh leadership. I do not think I can
be the captain to take the diocese to its next destination. In all
honesty, I don’t even think I can captain a remote control toy boat.”Bishop Cupich’s voice broke as he finished, watched on by his most trusted liturgical dancer.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Sunday that Christians
and the Roman Catholic Church should seek forgiveness from homosexuals
for the way they had treated them.

Speaking
to reporters aboard the plane taking him back to Rome from Armenia, he
also said the Church should ask forgiveness for the way it has treated
women, for turning a blind eye to child labor and for "blessing so many
weapons" in the past.

I'm Sorry About My Hat

In
the hour-long freewheeling conversation that has become a trademark of
his international travels, Francis was asked if he agreed with recent
comments by a German Roman Catholic cardinal that the Church should
apologize to gays.

Francis
looked sad when the reporter asked if an apology was made more urgent
by the killing of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, Florida this
month.

He
recalled Church teachings that homosexuals "should not be discriminated
against. They should be respected, accompanied pastorally."

Thanks! I DO NOT FORGIVE YOU!!!!

He
added: "I think that the Church not only should apologize ... to a gay
person whom it offended but it must also apologize to the poor as well,
to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been
exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologize for having
blessed so many weapons."

I also apologize to Muslims for the Crusades, the meat industry for the whole abstinence thing, and dogs and cats for their lack of a soul.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Just in case you need more examples of why laws against "hate speech"
are a bad idea, here's a case out of Spain in which a Catholic leader is under investigation for remarks he made during a religious ceremony.
While giving the homily at a Catholic University of Valencia
mass, the Archbishop of Valencia, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares, suggested
that "the gay empire" and "radical feminism" were undermining
traditional family values. "The family is being stalked today, in our
culture, by endlessly grave difficulties," he said. "When the family is
attacked or is diminished, the most sacred forms of human relationship
are perverted."

Note that the 70-year-old Cardinal didn't threaten violence against
anyone, nor attempt to incite listeners to violence. He merely expressed
his—perhaps unfashionable, but hardly radical or dangerous—opinion that
Spain has passed "legislation contrary to the family," and that this
stems from "the action of political and social forces," including the
"gay empire," the ideas of "radical feminism," and "the most insidious
of all, gender theory."

Yet because hate speech is such a nebulous concept, one rooted in à
la mode concepts of civility and shifting perceptions of power, the
homily Cañizares gave has earned him an investigation by the Provincial
Prosecutor's Office in Valencia. The investigation stems from a criminal complaint
filed by Lambda LGBT collective, which called Cañizares' homily
"homophobic and sexist," designed to "incite hatred against those who do
not enter fit into the archaic models defended by the Catholic
hierarchy." That's right: the group is upset about a Catholic official
defending "Catholic hierarchy" during a Catholic mass. Alas, this effort to dictate the confines of religious rhetoric isn't
just a whim of one particularly illiberal activist group; Lambda's
complaint was signed by 55 other organizations, including the Spanish
Network of Help to Refugees. In a statement, the Network accused
Cañizares of being an "ultra conservative" who yearned for the
"times when immigrants, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals and
women were subjected to the dictates of a society governed by the powers
of the Catholic church society." Apparently, such sentiment
is now potentially criminal in Spain.

OH NO! The Gay Empire has an ARMY!

The governor of Valencia condemned Cañizares for
"fomenting hatred, while the Monica Oltra, Valencia's vice president
and minister for Equality and Inclusive Policies, called the Cardinal a
misogynist. If found guilty of the charges against him, Cañizares could
face up to three years in prison.

Churches in California are officially subject to an onerous state
regulation that requires them to pay for abortions, thanks to a ruling
by the Obama administration.

The troubling situation began in 2014 when the California Department of Managed Health Care reclassified abortion as a “basic health service” under the Affordable Care Act and ordered all insurance plans in the state to begin covering surgical abortions immediately. Even churches are not exempt from funding abortions.

The churches filed a lawsuit against the regulation last October, and it has been moving through the courts.They also asked the Obama administration to uphold the Weldon
Amendment — federal law that protects conscience rights. But, today, the
HHS Office of Civil Rights released the results of its investigation
into the California abortion mandate, stating it found no violation and
is closing its investigation of the complaints without further action.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

In a state ruled by a former Jesuit, perhaps we should not be shocked
to find ourselves in the grip of an incipient state religion. Of course,
this religion is not actually Christianity, or even anything close to
the dogma of Catholicism, but something that increasingly resembles the
former Soviet Union, or present-day Iran and Saudi Arabia, than the
supposed world center of free, untrammeled expression.

Former Jesuit Jerry Brown

Two pieces of legislation introduced in the Legislature last session,
but not yet enacted, show the power of the new religion. One is Senate Bill 1146,
which seeks to limit the historically broad exemptions the state and
federal governments have provided religious schools to, well, be
religious.Under the rubric of official “tolerance,” the bill would only allow
religiously focused schools to deviate from the secular orthodoxy
required at nonreligious schools, including support for transgender
bathrooms or limitations on expressions of faith by students and even
Christian university presidents, in a much narrower range of educational
activity than ever before. Many schools believe the bill would
needlessly risk their mission and funding to “solve” gender and social equity problems on their campuses that currently don’t exist.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Pope Francis said Thursday that the majority of the words that come
“spilling” out of his mouth are invalid because most of the time he
doesn’t understand that what he says is permanent.“We live in a culture of the provisional,” the Pontiff said, responding to a question about the “crisis of his pontificate.”Francis said he often doesn’t comprehend the importance of what he’s
saying when speaking off-the-cuff, which he said is “indissoluble.”“Sadly in today’s pontificate, I don’t understand that what I say
will have ramifications for not only my pontificate, but of the many
pontificates to come,” he said. “I say something random, and people do
not know what it means. And because people listen to me with the
philosophy that I am the Pope, they believe I have fully contemplated
and formulated what I am saying, which is, in many cases, not the case. This then makes what I say null.”Francis went on to say that when Catholics have to spend most of
their working lives defending what he says, and having to write blog
posts or responses to comments on a combox asking if the “pope really
said such and such,” clearly there is something invalid in many of the
“weird, weird, weird” things that somehow manage to find their way from
his brain to his mouth.

“I heard a bishop say some months ago that he met a boy that had
finished his university studies, and said ‘I want to become a priest,
but only for 10 years.’ It’s the culture of the provisional. And this
happens everywhere, also in priestly life, in religious life,” he said.

“It’s provisional, and because of this the great majority of our
sacramental marriages are null. Because they say ‘yes, for the rest of
my life!’ but they don’t know what they are saying. Because they have a
different culture. They say it, they have good will, but they don’t
know.”

He spoke of his encounter with a woman in Buenos Aires who “reproached”
him. She said that priests study for the priesthood for years and can
get permission to leave the priesthood to marry and have a family. For
the laity, this woman said, “we have to do the sacrament for our entire
lives, and indissolubly, to us laity they give four (marriage
preparation) conferences, and this is for our entire life.”

Last time a ranking prelate (Cdl. Kasper)
opined that half of all marriages were null his attribution of such a
reckless assertion to Pope Francis himself could be dismissed as
hearsay, deflected as referring to marriage in general and not Christian
marriage in particular, or at least minimized as describing merely
‘many’ or even ‘half’ of all marriages. But none of those qualifications
can be applied to blunt the impact of the pope’s startling claim “the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null”.If last time was bad, this time is very bad.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

El Salvador’s National Minimum Wage Council has proposed to raise the
minimum wage by 5% each of the next three years—a proposal that the
nation’s leading prelate has rejected as insufficient.“I would say it is unfair and sinful not to pay proper wages to
workers,” said Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas of San Salvador,
according to the Fides news agency.

Sinful????

Let's see....GDP is $8300 with a 2% growth rate. Remittances make up 17% of that! Unemployment is 6.2%, but does not include underemployed.

In late December, the Archbishop of San Salvador, Jose Luis Escobar
Alas, gave orders to remove the ceramic mural facade of San Salvador's
Metropolitan Cathedral—without consulting the national government or the
still-living Salvadoran artist, Fernando Llort. A large white sheet
covered the cathedral's front as workers chipped off all 2,700 pieces of
mural tile.

As the news spread, Facebook groups, such as Indignados por el Mural, gathered photograph,
popular opinion, and press releases, and demanded answers. Photographs
showed the church steps covered in dust and ceramic pieces being thrown
into dumpsters. The Secretary of Culture formally condemned the act and
declared it against El Salvador’s cultural patrimony law, under which
changes to historical and cultural monuments in need of restoration must
be approved by his office. A week later, the destruction of one of the
country's most famous murals was still the major topic of discussion.

I like this:The Church's action speaks not only to a disregard for national cultural
patrimony but also to the historical memory that conservatives want to
erase.

Somehow, Omar Mateen’s massacre has put American Christians on the
defensive.
We are now fully through the looking glass. A Muslim man walked into a
gay nightclub and gunned down 49 men and women, most of them gay or
lesbian. He paused in the middle of his massacre to call 911 and a local
television station, making clear that he wanted the world to know he
had pledged allegiance to ISIS. There are no dog whistles here. This is a
textbook example of jihadism in action, plain and simple.
Yet somehow, Omar Mateen’s massacre has put American Christians on the
defensive.
Yesterday, Anderson Cooper grilled Florida attorney general Pam Bondi,
accusing her of hypocrisy for expressions of support for slain
Floridians. Why was she hypocritical? Because she opposed same-sex
marriage.

The principles, such as they exist, seem to be this: If you oppose
same-sex marriage or mixed-gender bathrooms, then you not only can’t
legitimately grieve the loss of gay lives, you’re partially responsible
for the massacre in Orlando. Conservative efforts to protect religious
freedom and freedom of association from unprecedented infringement will
kill people. Never mind that all the actual evidence in the case points
to Islamic motivations extrapolated from well-known and widely shared
interpretations of Shariah law, somehow those darn Baptists are to
blame.

Read the whole thing.

I'm in accord with the guy that won the "Draw Mohammad" contest in Texas:

I had nothing to do with the atrocity in Orlando. You had nothing to do
with it. America had nothing to do with it. Only a devout Muslim did

(Vatican Radio) The world of the Circus spreads “a culture of encounter” and
those working in such traveling shows have a unique opportunity “to be
Christ’s witnesses” to “even the most distant” of people: that’s what
Pope Francis said Thursday to members of Italian circuses and traveling
entertainment.
In a festive audience in the Vatican, Pope Francis greeted
representatives of circus associations, employees of amusement parks and
fairs, street performers, artists, designers and puppeteers, musicians
and folk groups celebrating their Jubilee for Circus and Traveling Show
People. The Pope told them their festiveness and joy “are distinctive
signs of your identity, your profession and your life” and that this
appointment “could not be overlooked” in the Jubilee of Mercy.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

The frosty relationship between two of the world’s most prominent
Argentinians appears to have taken a turn for the worse after it emerged
that Pope Francis rejected a charitable donation from president Mauricio Macri – at least partly – because the sum included the figure 666.

Mauricio Macri

Earlier this month, the centre-right president made a donation that
totaled 16,666,000 pesos (slightly under $1.2m) from the Argentinian
government to the Scholas Occurentes
educational foundation, which is backed by the pope and is based on a
similar organization founded by Francis when he was cardinal of Buenos
Aires.

Francis, who has long supported progressive causes in Argentina, and
the centre-right president Macri have often found themselves on opposite sides of political debates.But the pope is reported to have been particularly irritated when the
Argentinian media presented the president’s donation as a sign that
relations between the two leaders were improving.

Monday, June 13, 2016

NICOSIA, Cyprus — The best man slapped the groom on the back, which
is an old Cypriot wedding custom. The priest punching the best man would
be an innovation.But Cyprus police said Monday they are investigating an allegation that this happened at a wedding over the weekend.Police say the victim — the groom’s 22-year-old brother — was taken
to a hospital but wasn’t seriously hurt and that his family filed a
complaint.A family member — speaking on condition of anonymity because the
investigation is continuing — said the priest had initially gestured
with a raised hand for the slapping to cease, then punched the brother
in the chest and face when the warning went unheeded.

The family member told the Associated Press that the wedding
unraveled during the ceremony’s Dance of Isaiah, when the priest,
holding the Gospel, led the couple around the altar three times. With
the backslapping continuing, the irate priest put the gospel down and
unleashed on the brother.“It’s a tradition that I don’t condone, but that was uncalled for. …
He could have just interrupted the ceremony,” said the family member. He
said although the priest hastily abandoned the ceremony after the
kerfuffle, the couple did receive a marriage certificate.“The wedding was spoilt after that with many people not showing up
for the reception after word spread, but we made the best of it,” the
family member said.Bishop of Paphos Georgios backed the priest, whom he hailed as one of
the best clerics in his diocese. He told the state-run Cyprus News
Agency that the backslapping custom, dating from Ottoman times, doesn’t
befit the island’s Orthodox Christian traditions.The bishop said he had instructed priests to interrupt any ceremony
where family or guests didn’t demonstrate the appropriate respect. He
added he would investigate the matter.

Those who died in the most truly appalling events at Orlando ... may
they, through the all-atoning Sacrifice of our most sweet Redeemer and
our suffrages, have remission of their sins: we pray this for them as we
pray it for all the departed, since as Christians we believe that
anyone who claims to be without sin is deceiving himself and the Truth
is not in him. This, of course, goes equally for popes and for rent-boys
and for you and for me.
Humanly, we may surely hope that many of those killed in a situation which prima facie
may have been at least a proximate occasion of mortal sin, may, through
their own ignorance, not have had that full knowledge and consent which
would render their deeds and intentions as lethal subjectively as they
are objectively. It is a sobering thought that it may be easier
for us, who are instructed Catholics, to go to Hell than it is for the
uninstructed.
And we pray for the wounded; for the families, friends, survivors,
witnesses of those who died. Perhaps a particular prayer is appropriate
for those who were not aware that their sons or daughters were being
drawn into intrinsically disordered actions: parents for whom the horror
of so dreadful a bereavement may even be increased by that
realisation.
And I think we need to be aware that the Hierarchs of the Spirit of this
Age will use this fearful atrocity for their own purposes. Treating the
victims of a deranged murderer as martyrs for a noble cause is likely
to become a stock element in the perverted parody of the moral high
ground which the Powers of Evil seek to inculcate. And it will become
part of a campaign which, if it succeeds, will lead to the increasingly
violent persecution of anybody who articulates the teaching of Scripture
and of the Catholic Church (Catechism paragraphs 2357 and following).

Thursday, June 09, 2016

Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Valencia, Spain, faces criminal
charges for a speech in which he said that gender theory is "the most
insidious and destructive ideology of humanity in all history."

The hateful Cardinal Llovera

The Spanish Network of Help to Refugees filed a criminal complaint
against the cardinal, saying that his statement was a hate crime. The
group charged that Cardinal Cañizares "is an ultra-conservative trying
to subvert the constitutional order." Under Spanish law, law-enforcement
officials are required to conduct an investigation when such a charge
is filed.Cardinal Cañizares was the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for
Divine Worship before his appointment in 2014 as Archbishop of Valencia.

Well, SOME would argue that maybe Nazism might have gender studies in the "insidious and destructive" category. And what the heck is the "Spanish Network of Help to Refugees"? And why do they even care?Unless there's an army we don't know about.....

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 2, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com)
-- House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, says that same-sex
“marriage” is perfectly "consistent" with Catholic Christianity.Pelosi brought her grandchildren to see her receive an award from the
Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, to show the young, impressionable
children that "marriage equality is important."

Noted Theologian, Nancy Pelosi

In an interview with Thomas Roberts on MSNBC, Pelosi said she took
the children to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund gala because "it's
really important to see what the practice of our faith is."Pelosi, who described herself as a faithful Christian and “mainstream
Catholic,” said her pre-adolescent grandchildren needed to see and be
present at a gay and lesbian celebration in order "to give them the
image that we have for all people," meaning the image the Catholic
Church has for all.

The House Minority Leader explained that same-sex marriage "is
important," and that her grandchildren "have been hearing this [message
supporting gay 'marriage'] their whole life" because "they go to
Catholic school." (ed. note - in San Francisco).In perhaps the most controversial of her statements, Pelosi said,
matter-of-factly, that same-sex 'marriage' "is consistent with the
dignity and worth we [Catholics] attribute to every person."

Parishioners in the Italian parish of St. Anthony in
Ventimiglia, a small town in northwestern Italy about four miles from
the border of France, were ordered Saturday by a Catholic aid
organization volunteer to pray the Rosary silently so the Muslim
migrants living in the church would not be offended.

With a population of about 55,000, Ventimiglia
has been overwhelmed by Muslim migrants, receiving over 50 every day,
many of which are housed in Catholic churches.

ANSA reports a parishioner snapped back at the volunteer, telling him to "bring
migrants into another church." The parish priest, Don Rito, instead took
the parishioners to another church close by where they could pray out
loud.

The "Catholic aid organization is CARITAS, a branch of the social justice warrior wing of the Catholic Church.

After seeing this photo of the church, I can't imagine why ANYONE would want to go there.

Tuesday, June 07, 2016

The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
has defended his silence in the face of strong criticism of the Church
by the nation’s president-elect.Describing the recent election as “referendum between me and the
Catholic Church,” Rodrigo Duterte, 71, used an obscenity to describe
bishops and said that “the most hypocritical institution is the Catholic
Church.”

Duterte, founder of the Church of Duterte

“I will lecture until June 29,” the day before his inauguration, “on
whether or not you are still relevant,” Duterte added, as he described
himself as an ex-Catholic who has founded a new church, the “church of
Duterte.”Defending his silence in wake of Duterte’s remarks, Archbishop
Socrates Villegas said that “mine is the language of peace that refuses
the dark magic of revenge. Mine is the silence of respect for those who
consider us their enemies but whose good we truly pray for and whose
happiness we want to see unfold.”“Mine is the silence of Jesus before the arrogance of Pilate,” the prelate added.

Monday, June 06, 2016

What began with glowing rosaries and the rediscovery of a statue of
the Virgin Mary in Argentina has now been approved by the local bishop
as a series of apparitions that are “of supernational origin” and worthy
of belief.

And the designation is deeply significant, recognizing the messages
of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas, which exhort peace and give
dire warnings, one miracle researcher says.Bishop Hector Cardelli of San Nicolas in Argentina’s Buenos Aires
province made the announcement May 22 at the conclusion of a Mass during
the well-attended pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of
San Nicolas.The bishop has investigated the contents of the apparitions through 1990....

The apparitions began after some rosaries in homes throughout San
Nicolas de los Arroyos in Buenos Aires Province began to glow without
any explanation.

Gladys Quiroga de Motta

A wife and mother named Gladys Quiroga de Motta saw these glowing
rosaries and began to pray to the Virgin Mary. The Virgin appeared to
her on Sept. 25, carrying the infant Jesus and wearing a blue gown and
veil. Her figure glowed with light.With only a fourth-grade education, Gladys had no great knowledge of
the Bible or theology. She is a mother of two daughters and a
grandmother. At various times, the Virgin Mary apparition referred the woman to
several Bible verses. One month after the first appearance, the
apparition gave Gladys a white rosary and said, “Receive this Rosary
from my hands and keep it forever and ever. You are obedient; I am happy
because of it. Rejoice, for God is with you.”The Virgin Mary asked Gladys to go look for a statue that had been
blessed by a Pope and was forgotten away in a church. She found the
statue on Nov. 27, 1983. It was in the belfry of the diocesan cathedral.The statue in question was of the Mother of God holding the Child
Jesus. It had been brought from Rome after it was blessed by Pope Leo
XIII. Following the Virgin’s instructions, it was found in the bell
tower of the church. The statue resembled the apparition.

This was harder than I thought it would be,” Margaret O’Brien told a
CBS reporter last weekend. O’Brien, 86, had been one of the hundred or
so parishioners holding a round-the-clock vigil at St. Frances X.
Cabrini Church in Scituate, Mass.

Eleven years ago the Boston Archdiocese announced that it was closing
the parish, a reorganization necessitated by the financial settlements
after the clergy sex-abuse scandal. The parishioners at St. Frances have
tried to alter the hierarchy’s decision using canon law as well as the
US legal system, maintaining a presence in the building so it would not
be sold out from under them.But last month, they lost their final appeal when the Supreme Court
declined to take their case. And on Sunday, they held their final
service, holding 11 prayer quilts the community had created to
commemorate each year of their battle.

The story says these are just the kind of Catholics we need to save the Church from declining attendance.

While the Catholic hierarchy may not have had a choice in closing the
parish, in order to thrive they need to re-create exactly the kind of
community that St. Frances had become. Especially with a decline in
vocations, the church is more dependent on lay participation than ever.

So how did these upright and outstanding Catholics respond to the closure?

While the hierarchy has expressed its hope that the St. Frances
congregants will join other local parishes, they say they are done.
Starting next week, the members will be forming a religious institution
independent of the church, meeting initially at the local Masonic lodge.

Thursday, June 02, 2016

The website Canon Law Made Easy provides some interesting thoughts on the the teachings of the Church with regards to tithing.

The site does not allow copying and pasting, so you will have to go there to read the whole thing but the short answer is NO. Tithing is not required. Here's the Canon Law:

Can. 222.1

The Christian faithful are obliged to assist with the needs of the Church so that the Church has what is necessary for divine worship, for the works of apostolate and of charity, and for the decent support of ministers.

Says the site:

But note that Can. 222 says absolutely nothing about tithing, much less does it attach the penalty of excommunication to anyone who does not tithe. In fact, the current law provides no numerical figures or calculations at all. For that matter, a close look at the Latin wording will show that it doesn't actually require the faithful to give money! The terminology indicates that Catholics are to assist the Church, to come to its help as needed - and there are many different, genuine ways to do this that don't involve one's wallet.

I was wondering about this after having read the first reading form the Genesis last Sunday:

In those days, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine,and being a priest of God Most High,he blessed Abram with these words:"Blessed be Abram by God Most High,the creator of heaven and earth;and blessed be God Most High,who delivered your foes into your hand."Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Eye of the Tiber reports:Animal rights activists have created an online petition asking the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints to waive the sainthood waiting
period for Harambe, the endangered 450-pound gorilla who was fatally
shot after a boy fell into its “hermitage” at the Cincinnati Zoo.The petition, which has already gathered over 300,000 signatures,
asks Pope Francis to immediately proclaim Harambe a saint, elevating the
great ape to the universal veneration of the Church.“By canonizing Harambe, the Pope will not be making him a saint,”
said Toby Porter who is spearheading the canonization effort. “We
already know he’s a saint because he’s an animal, and all animals are
worthy of eternal veneration regardless of whether they are dead or
alive. Rather, Pope Francis will simply be declaring that our silverback
gorilla is already with God and is an authentic example of following
Christ, and worthy of imitation by the faithful, both human and ape.”Porter later went on to add that he hoped Harambe would be added to the general calendar of the Church.In response, Pope Francis announced this morning that he would be
issuing a new encyclical titled, Banana Vitae, reaffirming the orthodox
teaching of the Catholic Church regarding responsible conservation of
animals and their habitats.

At press time, animal rights activists have also announced plans to
ask Pope Francis to excommunicate the parents of the boy who fell into
the gorilla “hermitage” for negligence, as well as the zookeeper who
shot Harambe for violating the spirit of Laudato Si.

Deacon Joseph Enkh will be ordained on August 28 by Bishop Wenceslao
Padilla, the apostolic prefect of Ulan Bator. He received his training
in South Korea, and was ordained to the diaconate there in December
2014. Returning then to Mongolia, he has been visiting country's six
parishes-- which to date have been served exclusively by foreign
missionary priests.

Wednesday, June 01, 2016

The Gay and Lesbian Alumni of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s
(GALA-ND/SMC) named Notre Dame junior Samuel Cho and Saint Mary’s junior
Maranda Pennington the recipients of its 2016-2017 LGBTQ student
scholarships.Jack Bergen, the chair of GALA and a 1977 Notre Dame graduate, said
the scholarship was instituted in spring of 2015, making this year
its second consecutive year in what he hopes to be a continued
tradition.

Leprechauns are ADORABLE!

“When we were starting this up, we talked … and decided creating this
scholarship would be a great way to demonstrate our support and to help
eligible and qualified students with their financial burden at Notre
Dame and Saint Mary’s,” he said.Bergen said like most alumni groups, GALA has two primary purposes —
to continue to engage alumni of the University and the College and to
stimulate interactions between alumni and current students.“As a result of the University more actively recognizing the LGBTQ
student population as part of the community, we felt that it was time to
do more for the LGBTQ students on campus,” he said.